Butterflies in Honey (Growing Pains #3) (28 page)

“Geegee, you are the dumbest smart girl I
know. Just go tell him. And stay away from that tall, dark hunk.
He’s bad news. Also, I thought I would pass this on now when you
will hopefully forget it…You know that information you wanted from
me?”

Oh yeah!
She bobbed her head eagerly,
clutching onto Marcus to stay standing straight.

“Oh
hey,”
Krista said, quickly
sidetracked. “First, let me tell you, your body is
bangin’!”

Marcus was about to scold her, but stopped at
the subject matter. He puffed up like a peacock.

“
Oh?
What do you like
best?
”

“Shoulders are great and biceps are looking
really good. A bit more peck would have me panting, but I bet the
stomach is good times. I would definitely hit that.”

He smiled. “Yes, pecks are on the list, but
I’m flattered
.
”
He batted his eyelashes, getting her
to laugh. “Anyway, back to the subject at hand…”

“Right, sorry.”

“Well, all I’ll tell you now is that Bob is
impotent. I’ll tell more later if you need it, but that is a dark
little nugget for you. He is spreading rumors about you and Sean,
so I figured if you have to, drop that bomb and see if he shuts up.
Hopefully you won’t need me to tell you more. I don’t really trust
your delivery. Now, get going…”

Before she could process—because that was
HUGE—Marcus physically turned her around, gave her a light push,
then slapped her on the butt. She yelped and jumped but managed to
hang on to her drink. When she turned around again, Marcus was
heading away.

She ambled a while, finishing her drink, then
forgot what she was doing, and decided to head to bed. She was so
bad with direction, though, and drunk, that she wandered around for
a second before she found the way back. That’s when she saw
Sean.

He was sitting with the girl with the
too-short dress. She kept crossing and uncrossing her legs a la
Sharon Stone, and Krista just
knew
she was showing him her
undies. She was on the low side of her twenties, though, so she
probably didn’t realize how stupid it made her look. Or maybe she
didn’t care. It probably worked like a charm to get men naked.

Although, just asking them also worked. At
her age, though, the fun was in the chase.

Like a flash of lightening Krista remembered
she had a message. She tried to snap, realized she still had her
empty drink in her hand, and walked up to Sean completely flummoxed
because she really did intend to drop it by the bar.

Sean and the panty showing trollop were
sitting in the middle of the open space between the bar and the
elevators. There were chairs and couches set up on a large rug with
a piano not far off, currently silent. There were end and coffee
tables between the furniture and two ferns. It was kind of a nice
place to hang out, actually. She wished she’d known about it
earlier.

Currently she wished it was burning.

“Sean—“ Krista noticed the rug, but she
hadn’t
noticed
the rug. She stumbled and nearly dropped her
glass. Sean was up and steadying her immediately.

“Krista,” Sean said by way of greeting. He
looked both tired and relieved at the same time. He probably
thought she was going to end up doing a strip-tease on the bar.

The pink panty showing trollop wore loathing
on her face. Krista nearly pointed it out because really, what if
she didn’t know about showing the naughty bits? The dress was
that
short!

“Hey Sean, sorry to int’rupt—in-ter-upt. Um.
Marcus said to tell you he’s got a nugget of some sort, and to ask
him for it tomorrow. He might have said something else, but I
forget. And also…”

Krista looked at the girl, saw the hatred
looking back, then started laughing. “Sorry—
WOW!
”

Sean had a puzzled expression and a half
smirk. Krista realized he’d always thought of her as a funny drunk.
Probably because she reminded him of his sister, Cassie, who was
equally wild.

The girl crossed her legs in a huff.

“Mine are cuter,” Krista blurted, looking
back at Sean and shrugging. “I make more money, though. I can
afford nicer quality under-roos.”

Sean barked a laugh then coughed into his
hand.

“O
kay.
Anyway, off topic. Why the hell
am I here?” Krista, still using Sean to steady herself, tapped her
chin while looking up at the ceiling. Then she noticed the heat
pouring off Sean. She noticed the tingling in her crotch. Sean’s
answering focused look. The heat exchanged between the two of
them.

“I should go,” Krista said softly.

Sean’s pupils dilated, the girl with the
short dress forgotten.

Krista took a step away, stepped wrong on her
heel, and pitched toward the ground. Sean grabbed her arm to keep
her from smashing her face into the rug. She twirled around like a
Ninja, her dress coming up to her mid-thighs, using Sean’s grasp to
swing her body so her back hit the ground first, her glass up in
the air, still righted.

“You planned to land on your face to save
your empty drink?” Sean asked incredulously.

The peppy bartender came sprinting up and
helped Sean right Krista.

“That was
great!”
The bartender
exclaimed, taking the glass. “I wish I got that on video! You would
have
saved
the drink! I’ll buy you one!”

“Habit,” Krista said, making sure her dress
was intact.

“She’s had enough,” Sean told the bartender
in such a way that wiped the smile off the man’s face and had his
feet carrying him away before he knew it wasn’t his idea.

Krista, disentangling herself from Sean’s
fabulous limbs, copping a feel when she could, said, “Sorry.”

It would have been fine, but then her stupid
legs got weak from the contact and her groin pooled with his
lingering touch.

“Marcus said behave,” she squeaked. She
turned to the girl. “I’ve made an ass of myself—sorry ‘bout that.
Good luck!” The girl got a thumbs up.

Krista turned back to Sean. “Drank too much.
Going to bed. Grab me a muffin or something tomorrow. I plan to
sleep through breakfast.”

Krista stalked off, realized belatedly she
was going the wrong way, about faced, saluted nobody in particular,
and headed toward the elevators, still wobbly.

Half way to the elevator Krista felt a large
hand on her arm. Then felt Sean’s body next to hers.

“You okay?” he asked quietly.

“I didn’t mean to ruin your night,” she said
as the crocodile tears started falling. Emotions were always close
to the surface when she was drunk.

Sean guided her into the elevator. “You
didn’t. Why are you going to bed so late?”

“That guy Ron talked to me for a while. Then
everyone was gone. Oh, and I didn’t want to stop drinking.”

“I can see that. What did Ron want?”

“Oh, the usual. Would I consider moving? Why
am I so loyal to McAdams? I’m sure next he’ll say I don’t get paid
enough.” She was guided out of the elevator. “Sean, why did you
hurt me so bad? Why didn’t you contact me? Am I not worth it? I
thought we loved each other. I thought you were the
one
.”

She cried harder, her face in her hands,
wringing Sean’s heart.

Sean opened the door to her room and guided
her in. As soon as they were inside, he wrapped her up in his
arms.

“Of course you are worth it, Krissy! Of
course
you are. More than worth it. I was a fool. A scared
fool. I was so wrapped up in myself, I couldn’t see the hurt I
caused…continue to cause. I don’t know why you continue to trust
me. I am thankful, but I don’t deserve your loyalty.”

“Because I love you, Sean. I never stopped.
Not for one day. I still haven’t. I think of you constantly. Ever
since I left I’ve thought of you every day…” She cried into his
chest.

He held onto her, rocking her, cooing in her
ear to stop the tears.

Janice came out then. “What happened?” she
asked in a panic.

“She’s emotional,” Sean answered.

“Sean, you need to go. It’s late. You
shouldn’t be here. I’ll take her.”

Sean’s arms constricted around Krista. But
knowing Janice was right, he kissed her on the head, sighed, and
said, “Okay.”

Krista clung to him. “No, please. Stay.
Please.
”

“Krista,” Janice said in a reasonable voice
mothers were great at, “he cannot stay here. Someone will find out,
and then it will undermine all you’ve fought to do. You have to let
him go.”

“I
always
let him go. He
never
stays,” Krista yelled hysterically despite Janice’s best
efforts.

Sean sighed again, but he didn’t try to stop
Janice pulling Krista away, walking her toward the other room
despite her protests, and unceremoniously stripping off her
dress.

“It’s going to hurt, Krista, but you have to
be strong. This is not the place to break down. Those guys can
sense vulnerability. You can’t let them see it. Be strong, then
when you get home you can fall apart, okay?”

“Okay,” she whined. She let Janice put her
into bed and cover her up.

In a daze, Krista heard Janice’s voice
saying, “She’s fine. She might not even remember this in the
morning. Stay the course. She’ll come around.”

“But she’s right. Everything she said is
right. I keep hurting her. I shouldn’t have come for her.”

Sean sounded miserable. Krista’s brain was
getting foggy as sleep started to tug. She tried to stay awake to
listen, to hear the reason he stayed away.

“No, Sean. You should never have let her
leave. But what’s done is done. Stay the course. She’ll come
around.”

“I don’t think you realize how stubborn she
is.”

Sleep was calling. She missed what Janice
said as she slid into a drunken, dreamless sleep.

Chapter Twenty-One

The L.A. region was standing at their first
obstacle. Krista didn’t stand so much as try to sleep upright. The
aspirin was kicking in, so the pounding head she woke up to was
slowly diminishing. Janice didn’t say a word about the night
before, and when Krista tried to apologize, she waved it away,
muttering about love problems with young people.

When Krista met everyone, after breakfast had
ended, Sean had a blueberry muffin, a chocolate donut, and some
coffee for her. She wolfed it all down. And while it did help, it
didn’t cure by any means.

Sean hadn’t said a word about the night
before, either, but he didn’t look like he got much sleep, and had
a hard time meeting Krista’s eyes. Despite what Janice said, she
remembered every word. Every single word he said, and all the
extremely stupid words strung together into stupid sentences she
said throughout the night.

For example, why did she get the urge to try
and saw Perry’s mustache off with Mark’s Swiss Army knife? Why was
that necessary?

And why did she give Georgie a Charley Horse?
And why had he laughed when she apologized for the bruise? How was
it funny that she was a complete
fool?

She knew why the rocket crotch in the tiny
dress, who tried to seduce Sean, gave her evil looks—Krista didn’t
feel bad about that one. But everything else…

Back in the present, they were standing
together in a clump waiting to start the first do-hickey on the
ropes course, which apparently consisted of a bunch of different
puzzles each region had to physically solve. Points were awarded
for correctly completing each. The one in front of them, currently,
included two planks running between trees, about ten feet or so
apart. A rope hung down from a branch directly in the middle of the
planks.

They were supposed to swing from one plank to
the other using the rope. Sounded easy, but you couldn’t step off
the plank and the rope was too far to grab easily. The men were all
trying to figure out how to get the rope. So far, a long stick was
the top contender.

Of course, there were no long sticks within
reach. They were geniuses, these guys. And Krista was too hung over
to cope with stupidity.

“You guys,
look
,” she said while
holding her aching brain. “Someone pick me up and use me as a long
stick.”

All eyes on Krista.

She sighed and leaned against Donald to take
the ease off of standing. He started moving around immediately.

“Donald, stay
still
. I’m hung-over.
Listen, this is a physical activity, right? Okay, well, someone
pick me up, probably Sean because he is really strong, and I’ll
reach out for the rope.”

Sean met a panicked Donald’s eyes. “Relax,
she gets like this when she is hung-over. If you are uncomfortable,
tell her to get off.”

“I dare you,” Georgie muttered with a
suppressed laugh.

“I would need to be anchored to something,”
Sean said, getting back on track and looking around.

“I vote Bob,” Krista said.

“Why me?” Bob asked, outraged.

She turned her whole body and looked at him.
He was behind Dean and shrunk slightly from her stare.

“Because you weigh the most, obviously.”

“That’s no reason—“

“Bob, do you want everyone to say how much
they weigh?” she cut him off. “Here, I’ll go first. I weigh
one-twenty. Next?”

“I’ll hold Sean,” Georgie volunteered.

“Great, let’s try that,” Sean said.

“She’s right, though,” Donald said quietly.
“Sean has the height and muscle mass to hold her. But we need
someone to hold Sean. Sean’s not huge but he is solid. Muscle is
heavy. Add Krista’s one-twenty to that and we have what, over
three-hundred pounds? It’ll take a couple of us to anchor it.”

“Bob, why don’t you hold Sean and I’ll hold
you?” Georgie compromised.

“If not, then Georgie, you hold me and Bob or
Donald, you hold him,” Sean tried.